The Secretary-General of the United Nations in a letter to the Heads of state for the World Statistics Day 2020, invited governments to invest in “data and statistics” produced by official statistical agencies. This “is the only way in which we will be able to make the decisions needed to respond and recover from the COVID-19 pandemic and get on track to deliver the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) by 2030.”

Celebrating World Statistics Day 2020 on 20 October means supporting the importance of producing and using trustworthy statistics, in order to strengthen the collective wellbeing.

Read more in the ESAC Statement - World Statistics Days 2020  

Invitation to the 2018 Conference of European Statistics Stakeholders at the University of Bamberg in Bamberg, Germany from 18 to 19 October 2018

Are you a data user looking for an integrated picture of complex economic and social developments to prepare better decisions for the development of Europe? Are you a researcher interested in experimenting with new statistical methods to expand and improve our understanding of complex phenomena? Are you involved in the production of European statistics and interested in exploring innovative methods and ways of communication and dissemination? Are you a data analyst interested in further developing the use of micro-data, while still applying the rules of statistical confidentiality?

Then the 2018 Conference of European Statistics Stakeholders (CESS 2018) is the right place for you to present your work and to discuss the challenges that you face when using or producing statistics, and the ways in which you would like statistics to improve. The Conference will be organised according to three thematic blocks - Statistics, Science and Society.

Clic here for the submission of abstracts

The submission deadline is Thursday, 31 May 2018

ESAC (European Statistical Advisory Committee) declaration,  Lisbon 20 October 2017
"European Statistics Day - Quality Data and Reliable Statistics: benefits for all Users and Citizens"

Quality data and reliable statistics are a public good for everyone. In fact, official statistics:

• are vital drivers to strengthen democracy and to measure the progress of nations and regions;
• shape and are shaped by many individual and social activities in a citizen’s daily life;
• play an essential role in the modern development of scientific knowledge;
• provide relevant evidence to support policy formulation and evaluation.

If quality data and reliable statistics are to become successful drivers for democracy, development, innovation, competition, prosperity and well-being, they need to be complete, relevant, coherent, accessible and timely. Official statistics already meet this high-quality standard. Read more

Improving the quality of life (QoL) of the peoples of the European Union is a prime aim of the Union and its member states. Consequently, knowing exactly where we stand in relation to quality of life is of utmost importance. The identification of regions and population groups whose quality of life is behind aspired European standards is seen as essential for the cohesion of our society.

Providing robust data about how well (or not so well) we are doing has become ever more important in an era where distorted “alternative facts” are distributed widely, especially via social media. From the perspective of the Union, we should see developing data sets on the quality of the lives of European citizens as an important and strategic investment in the progress of our society.

ESAC's Opinion on the "Final Report of the Expert Group on Quality of Life Indicators" of 27 July 2017 has now been published.

Eurostat recently consulted the European Statistical Advisory Committee (ESAC) on a draft set of EU indicators for monitoring progress in relation to the 17 United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. ESAC's Opinion on the draft indicator set has now been published.

The European Statistical Advisory Committee (ESAC) has published an Opinion on the draft strategic priorities of the European statistics Annual Work Programme 2018.

The Committee discussed the draft strategic priorities of the European statistics Annual Work Programme for 2018 and the final report of the Expert Group on quality of life indicators.

The meeting also included information from Eurostat on the state of play of the extension of the European Statistical Programme (ESP) 2018-20 and the signature of a Memorandum of Understanding between Eurostat and the European Central Bank. The Memorandum concerns the practical working arrangements for cooperation between Eurostat and the ECB Directorate General Statistics on the quality assurance of statistics underlying the macro imbalances procedure.

In addition, Eurostat updated the Committee on progress with the project on digital communication, user analytics and innovative products (DIGICOM) and the activities of the Task Force on Big Data.

The Committee discussed Sustainable Development Goal indicators and draft recommendations for the European Commission to take into consideration when translating the Sustainable Development Goals into European actions. 

Eurostat informed ESAC about the recent adoption of the Vienna Memorandum and  Quality Declaration of the ESS and ESAC was briefed on the state of play of the extension of the European Statistical Programme (ESP) 2018-20.

The ESAC meeting took place on the eve of the first European Statistics Day. ESAC welcomed the different national activities organised on 20 October 2016, published under "Latest news" on ESS website, and discussed the preparation for European Statistics Day 2017.
 

Eurostat, the European Central Bank, the European Statistical Advisory Committee, the Federation of European National Statistical Societies and the Hungarian Central Statistical Office, with the involvement of the Hungarian Statistical Association, are organising the second Conference of European Statistics Stakeholders in Budapest (CESS 2016) on 20 and 21 October 2016. 

The aim of the Conference is to bring together European methodologists, producers, and users of statistics to discuss users' needs, to share best practices in the production of official statistics, to present innovative ways of visualising and communicating statistics, and to advance new methodological ideas for collecting and analysing data. This is achieved through sessions in six tracks on:

• Users, dissemination, promotion, communication & visualisation of official statistics
• Statistics on cross border phenomena and globalisation; comparability of statistics
• Statistical modelling
• Sharing of statistics and data
• Multi-source statistics
• Statistics on markets

There is also a session on the timely estimates of economic indicators as well as a session on indirect questioning for sensitive issues.

The full conference programme is now online. Further details on the sessions, as well as the abstracts for the presentations, are available online. 

The European Statistical Advisory Committee (ESAC) Workshop "Indicators: user requirements, methodological issues and communication challenges" on 10 May gathered some 45 participants to reflect and advise on different approaches and processes for constructing, using and communicating indicators – particularly European indicators.

The plenary meeting on 11 May focused on the organisation of the Second Conference of European Statistics Stakeholders in Budapest and the celebration of the European Statistics Day. 

ESAC is actively participating in the meetings of various directors groups organised by Eurostat. The Committee envisages a workshop on migration statistics in autumn 2017 and is following up the implementation of a strategic ESS Vision 2020 project “Digital communication, User analytics and Innovative products”.

ESAC meeting on 29 January 2016 focussed on strategic discussion about the annual work programme 2017 and the extension of the European statistical programme 2018-20. Formal opinions on these issues are being prepared. Moreover, ESAC is preparing two events for 2016:

• 20 – 21 October 2016: Conference of European Statistics Stakeholders in Budapest brings together European methodologists, producers, and users of statistics. Call for papers and further details about the event.
• 10 May 2016: Workshop in the Hague on indicators will reflect and advise about different approaches and processes for constructing, using and communicating indicators from a European users' perspective. The workshop participation is by invitation only.

ESAC also welcomed four new members who started their 5-year term in January 2016: David Hand (absent), Claudiu Herteliu, Ariane König and Biruta Sloka.

The European Statistical Advisory Committee (ESAC) welcomes four new members for a 5-year-term 2016-2020, appointed by the European Commission in their private capacity:

• Ariane König from Luxembourg
• Biruta Sloka from Latvia
• Claudiu Herteliu from Romania
• David Hand from the United Kingdom

Eurostat, the European Central Bank, the European Statistical Advisory Committee, the Federation of European National Statistical Societies, the Hungarian Central Statistical Office and the Hungarian Statistical Association are organising the second Conference of European Statistics Stakeholders (CESS) in Budapest on 20–21 October 2016.

The aim of the Conference is to bring together European methodologists, producers, and users of statistics to discuss user needs, to share best practices in the production of official statistics, to present innovative ways of visualising and communicating statistics, and to advance new methodological ideas for collecting and analysing data.

The call for papers is open until 31 May 2016 to those interested in presenting their results and achievements related to the conference's issues.

The European Statistical Advisory Committee (ESAC) just published an opinion on the 2017 European Statistics Annual Work Programme.